Reliance on talks

It is satisfying to know that talks have begun between the government and "elders" on issues facing Balochistan. But at a press conference in Quetta on Friday where he made this disclosure, President Pervez Musharraf did not specify who the elders were. The same day in the National Assembly, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao offered talks to the opposition to tackle the violence in Wana.

The minister gave a smaller figure for the dead in the recent operation there - 40. But the casualty toll is not the whole point; the real problem centres round tackling a highly charged issue in the sensitive tribal belt. Few can deny that foreign militants are indeed present in the area and are a source of terrorism. Drawn from countries as far apart as Indonesia and Algeria, they came here for the 'jihad' in Afghanistan and stayed on even after the Soviet Union withdrew.

They took part in the ensuing civil war on the side of the Taliban and helped them set up an obscurantist dispensation in Afghanistan. Uprooted after the ouster of the Taliban regime in December 2001, they have been shuttling back and forth across the Durand Line. The problem is complicated by the fact that they enjoy a degree of local support, and some have integrated into local society. Without such support, they would not be able to run training centres or maintain operational bases like the one said to have been destroyed in air raids on Thursday.

Not all tribesmen back the foreign militants, but probably are forced to accept their presence in their midst. Such tribal people are also getting hurt in the military's punitive operations. A pool of bitterness may be forming, and that is why we have constantly advocated a political solution. Regrettably, many foreign nationals did not avail themselves of the government's amnesty offer to let them stay in the area if they registered with the authorities.

According to Mr Sherpao, there was an agreement on the issue between the government on the one hand and the tribesmen and the MMA on the other. Obviously, the MMA has influence with the tribesmen and through them with the foreign militants. The government should seek to strengthen this line of communication with the foreign militants. This cannot be done by banning MMA leaders' entry into the troubled area. The MMA has condemned terrorism but evidently it has not been able to strike an understanding with the government on the issue of foreign militants.

One hopes that the government and the MMA would not link their common Wana concerns to issues where they differ - like the president's uniform or foreign policy. Terrorists are not only in the Wana area, they have agents elsewhere too. In fact, as the events of last May showed, they are quite capable of striking elsewhere in Pakistan, especially in the cities. For these reasons, the government must seek the cooperation of all political parties and elements to eliminate this threat to our society and state.

Where Balochistan is concerned, the president, while reporting talks with unspecified "elders", also referred to elements opposed to the integrity of Pakistan. This is a handy charge levelled since independence against political opponents. It leaves us nowhere. The president also talked about "pro-development" and "anti-development" elements in Balochistan. One doubts if any Baloch in his right senses would oppose the economic development of his province.

What the Baloch leaders are probably concerned about is the way some mega projects are being carried out. Specifically, they want assurances that in matters of employment, locals will not be ignored. This is not something the government disagrees with. But it needs to de-link this from matters such as the killing of the Chinese engineers in Gwadar and the frequent sabotage of gas pipelines. Talks must not be confined to elders, but encompass the province's political leadership and all accredited Baloch elements.

With sincerity on both sides, there is no reason why the problems agitating Balochistan cannot be amicably settled. This is what the senate committee on Balochistan was meant to do, but one has heard little of it in the past few days.

Threatened heritage

Many lawyers, architects, students and common citizens of Lahore appear to have put up a spirited if belated fight for the preservation of the magnificent Lahore High Court building, portions of which are being demolished to be rebuilt. Some of the demolition work, said to have been necessitated by the rundown condition of certain parts of the building, has already been carried out. It is a wonder that no one earlier showed much concern about what was happening, although the high court is visited daily by countless lawyers and litigants.

A committee has now been formed to ensure that the new construction is carried out without damaging the character of the building, which dates back to 1887 and is one of the most graceful in the country. Members of both the bench and the bar are taking an interest in the matter as well as the Institute of Architects and it is hoped that the damage already done will be minimized and the rebuilding would be undertaken according to expert advice. The disturbing thing is that if someone had not noticed the demolition and raised a stink about it in the press, much of Lahore and the rest of the country would have remained blissfully unaware of the depredations.

We don't care. Period. That is the general attitude towards the preservation of our architectural and cultural heritage. This is most glaringly seen in the neglect of Moenjodaro, perhaps the nation's oldest treasure which marks our attitude to almost all archaeological sites and buildings of importance. Today's Magazine section carries an article about how civil society in Bosnia Herzegovina rallied to reclaim the historic city of Mostar after the systematic cultural annihilation inflicted on it by the Serbian side in the civil war in Bosnia.

We cannot blame anyone except ourselves for the state of our historic buildings. In Karachi, most of the old public buildings and residential houses are either in a state of decay, with some actually boarded up, or occupied by government agencies (the Jinnah Hostel, now the Rangers headquarters, being a prime example). The character of entire cities is being destroyed by galloping commercialization.

When a building shows signs of aging and decay, it needs to be renovated. But this should be a constant process, overseen on a sustained basis, so that one doesn't have to wait till a wall begins to crumble or a roof to leak. If this had been the case with the Lahore High Court building, the need for pulling down structures and rebuilding them might not have arisen.

All this is part of the anti-culture attitude that has permeated the national psyche, sometimes deliberately fostered by the establishment, sometimes propagated by fundamentalist organizations. Cultural awareness is linked also to political awareness, which has been suppressed by a succession of authoritarian regimes. Heritage cannot get much importance in an atmosphere where basic democratic and civil rights are denied. All credit, then, to those few activists and individuals who, despite the odds, continue to draw attention to our collective neglect of culture, heritage and traditions.